Four women living in California dealing with the challenges common in marriage, career, and family. They are four first generation Chinese Americans living with their mother’s constant “advice” that doesn’t seem relevant. They don’t see that their mothers were once daughters, pushing back on the advice of their own mothers while making their own way in a war-torn country. All eight women experience heartbreak and triumph as they connect over mahjong and the similarities in their stories.
Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club is a modern classic originally published 35 years ago. Tan’s work is widely acclaimed having been granted several literary awards and adapted into a 1993 movie by the same name with an all-star Chinese American cast, including Ming-na Wen (Agents of Shield) and Tamlyn Tomita (Cobra Kai). The novel is structured in four sections similar to the game of mahjong which brings the women together. This is the story of generational trauma and the community we make for ourselves through our shared backgrounds.
I give The Joy Luck Club 4 out of 5 stars. I found this story hard to keep straight with the number of characters. However, this could be because I chose the audiobook version and it can be harder to track multiple characters when you aren’t reading the names or other written cues. I also felt like a few of the characters (the mothers in particular) could be better developed to help readers connect with them. I did enjoy the plotline of the daughter journeying to China to meet her parents’ families and her half-sisters – I wish the book had focused more on that daughter.
I would recommend this novel to audiences looking to learn more about the trials faced by Chinese nationals both in their homeland and the US after World War II. With discussions of parental illness and death, along with other family challenges, war, and child abandonment, this novel would be best directed to more mature audiences over the age of 16. This would make a great book club selection – readers can dissect the relationships and decisions of each of the women.
I chose The Joy Luck Club for California in the US States reading challenge. Set around the San Fransico area, the novel digs into a common experience of many Asian immigrants coming to the US during that timeframe. This is another book that was making the rounds in my book groups online in 2023 and I’m glad I got the chance to finally read it!
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
- Current audio book: Stiltsville, Susanna Daniel
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
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